Elder Melvin J. Ballard (deceased) wrote:
I think as I read the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac that our Father is trying to tell us what it cost him to give his son as a gift to the world. You remember the story of how Abraham’s son came after long years of waiting and was looked upon by his worthy sire Abraham, as more precious than all his other possessions; yet, in the midst of his rejoicing, Abraham was told to take his only son and offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord. He responded. Can you feel what was in the heart of Abraham on that occasion?. . . What do you think was in his heart as he started away from Mother Sarah, and they bade her goodbye?. . . . I imagine it was about all that Father Abraham could do to keep from showing his great grief and sorrow at that parting, but he and his son trudged along three days toward the appointed place, Isaac carrying the fagots that would consume the sacrifice. The two travelers rested, finally, at the mountainside, and the men who had accompanied them were told to remain while Abraham and his son started up the hill.
The boy then said to his father: “Why, Father, . . . we have the fire to burn the sacrifice; but where is the sacrifice?” It must have pierced the heart of Father Abraham to hear the trusting and confiding son say: “You have forgotten the sacrifice.” Looking at the youth, his son of promise, the poor father could only say: “The Lord will provide.”
They ascended the mountain, gathered the stones together, and placed fagots upon them. Then Isaac was bound hand and foot, kneeling upon the altar. I presume Abraham, like a true father, must have given his son his farewell kiss, his blessing, his love, and his soul must been drawn out in that hour of agony toward his son who was to die by the hand of his own father. Every step was proceeded until the cold steel was drawn, and the hand raised that was to strike the blow to let out life’s blood when the angel of the Lord said: “It is enough.”
Our Father in heaven went through all that and more, for in his case the hand was not stayed. He loved his Son, Jesus Christ, better than Abraham ever loved Isaac, . . . and yet he allowed his well beloved Son to descend from his place of glory and honor, where millions did him homage, down to the earth, a condescension that is not within the power of man to conceive. He came to receive the insult, the abuse, and the crown of thorns. God heard the cry of his Son in that moment of great grief and agony, in the garden when, it is said, the pores of his body opened and drops of blood stood upon him, and he cried out: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.”
I ask you, what father and mother could stand by and listen to the cry of their children in distress, in this world, and not render aid and assistance? I have heard of mothers throwing themselves into raging streams when they could not swim a stroke to save their drowning children, rushing into burning buildings to rescue those whom they loved.
We cannot stand by and listen to those cries without its touching our hearts. The Lord has not given us the power to save our own. He has given us faith and we submit to the inevitable, but he had the power to save, and he loved his Son, and he could have saved him. ~Melvin J. Ballard, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2002), 57-58 (continued)
